LNG firm, protestors pitch different visions along Ship Channel coastline
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NextDecade Corp. came to Port Isabel Thursday to outline a years-in-the-making plan to build a natural gas export facility at the Port of Brownsville. They met with interested community members. But they also met with opposition from activists, including those from Save RGV.
NextDecade is pitching the Rio Grande LNG export facility. The company plans to draw natural gas through pipelines at the Port of Brownsville, supercool the gas into liquid form, and export the liquid on tanker ships to markets overseas.
NextDecade sees the project as a multi-billion dollar investment for the region, promising thousands of jobs at the height of its construction.
Opponents say the 994-acre footprint at the Port is carving out an environmental scar on previously undeveloped land next to a wildlife refuge. They worry it would bring pollution and the risk of an explosion.
“During our peak construction period, we'll hire up to 5,000 employees,” NextDecade Corp. spokesperson Susan Richardson said. “Of those 5,000, we've made a commitment that 35% or more of those will be from the local area."
Richardson said those thousands of positions will transition around 400 permanent jobs once the facility is fully up and running.
“Other than the construction jobs, temporary construction jobs, they're bringing nothing good to the Valley,” SaveRGV member Jim Chapman said.
They would be the largest source of stationary air pollution in the Valley,” he added. “We would have dirtier air, they have destroyed a lot of wonderful habitats."
NextDecade says it's offsetting impacts to the environment at the Port by buying up or paying to improve 4 thousand acres of nearby land, for conservation
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